Winning four of its past five games, St. Johns looked to continue their hot streak as they traveled to Rhode Island last Tuesday to play Providence. The Red Storm 13-9 (3-6 in the Big East), faced a tough challenge against the Friars, who are 16-6 and third in the conference. After being winless in the Big East 20 days ago, they may be peaking at the right time.

On Saturday, Feb.1, they beat Marquette 74-59 at Madison Square Garden. D’Angelo Harrison, who leads the team in scoring with 17 ppg, filled the stat sheet with 27 points, was 6 of 11 from 3-point range, had six rebounds, three assists, two steals and two of St. John’s 12 blocked shots.

Harrison is now 17th in St. John’s history with 1,423 career points, having just passed Willie Glass (1,419, 1984-87) and Marcus Hatten (1,400, 2001-03), and is only one point away from tying legend Walter Berry (1,424, 1985-86).

“I thought the kids took a positive step forward, which is encouraging as we head toward the second half of Big East play,” said head coach Steve Lavin. “There were a number of positive aspects of play today and as a result we were able to get a win against a very feisty Marquette team.”

On Jan. 28, the play of All-American Doug McDermott was too much as the 20th ranked Creighton Jayhawks defeated the Johnnies, 63-60. Hoping to steal a win in Nebraska, St. John’s late 18-point rally in the last 12 minutes was not enough to top McDermott’s 39 points.

Even though they shut down Ethan Wragge, the national 3-point leader, who tied a school record with nine 3’s in a 28-point win over Villanova last week, McDermott, was on fire and he nailed a 25-footer with 2.5 seconds left to win the game.

Harrison scored 13 of his 15 points in the second half to lead St. John’s and Obekpa and Jordan had 11 apiece.